I'm cleaning off my nightstand because I need to use it as a photo backdrop for something and so it's requiring me to touch alllll the books I've piled on there, which have been so patiently waiting their turn. I thought it would be interesting to see what other people have on their nightstands — do you treat it as a "next up" or a collection of your favorites or something else? Do you keep a lot of books there, or just a few? Or one?! (Or none?!) I'll post mine in the comments!

Are you kinder to indie authors? More willing to rate debuts higher? Less understanding when it comes to errors in traditionally published books?

Over the last year, I’ve heard a lot of arguments for and against treating certain releases differently, and I was wondering where other people fell on the topic.

Personally, I try to review everything the same way -- at the end of the day, if I’m paying for a book, I’m entitled to an opinion on it, regardless of how it was published and who wrote it, right? But, on the other hand, there is a part of me that somehow feels like I need to be more... positive, I guess, when it comes to debuts and indies? So, rather than feeling comfortable saying I just didn’t enjoy something, I find myself wanting to sugarcoat it when I say anything negative (even though reviews are for readers and I don’t even want authors reading my reviews).

So, yeah, how do you review different releases? Do you think it’s fair to have different standards between trad and indie publishing, or debuts and established authors? Do you think there should be a difference in how we review things?

I am sick, so I made this! Some of these are supposed to be hard, some are genuinely only about preference. All lighthearted of course, don’t take them TOO seriously (unless it would be funny to do so)

1. Would you rather read 🛖in a lonely cabin infested with spiders or 🏢standing up on a busy sidewalk where you keep being bumped into and run danger of having things spilled on you and your book?
2. Would you rather 😍love a book that everyone else hates with a passion or 🙄hate a book that everyone else loves with a passion?
3. Would you rather 🔮know the ending of every book you read from now on as soon as you read past the third chapter or 🤔struggle to fully understand every single ending unless you have someone explain it to you or look it up?
4. Would you rather have dinner with ✍️your favorite author or 🥸your favorite character?
5. Would you rather have your favorite book turned into a screen adaptation that 🌇is wildly inaccurate but incredibly good in its own way, or 🌃is incredibly faithful but still bad in pretty much every other way (acting, editing, effects, colour, costuming, …)?
6. For the next five years, Would you rather only be able to read 🎵booktok™ books or ✖️books from your least favorite two genres?
7. For the next year, Would you rather 🤖only read books generated with AI or 🤓have listen to a litfic bro™ explain to you why every genre but litfic is not real literature every time you start a new book?
8. Would you rather be 🕴️be kidnapped by a hot mafia billionaire or 👽abducted by a hot alien?
9. Would you rather 🔜only be a able to read books published from this very second onward or 🔙only be able to read books published up until this very second?
10. Would you rather read ❓a series that ends on a cliffhanger and the author has no intention of finishing it or ❗️a story that ends with no happy ending for no narrative reason other than shock value?

Feel free to elaborate on some or all (or not at all) on why you chose the way you did & to add other tricky questions in the comments, I’m curious to see what pagebound thinks 🫶

Hello all !! I was in a local bookshop today and found the gem of a lifetime ! A book named after me !!! Now for some people, this is old news. But for my BIPOC friends out there … the struggle is real. So imagine my surprise when I look over the vintage classics & see Ayesha, The Return of She by H. Rider Haggard; a 1905 gothic-fantasy novel ?!? I couldn’t believe my eyes !! And then it got me wondering… there are thousands of books on this planet, could there be one for you too ??

SO: do you have a namesake book? Have you read it/would you read it? Is it out there but you haven’t discovered it yet?

There’s a recent thread about age gap books And I was just scrolling through it and someone mentioned a book titled “Your Dad Will Do” and I’m not gonna lie I almost laughed so hard I cried. It’s just such a hilarious title for a book to me. I don’t care for regular romances and I don’t care for age gaps but I may actually read this book simply for the title.

What hilariously titled books have you stumbled upon?

Hey, guys... I've been wondering lately if you need to know at least a few basic pieces of information about the author of the book you are reading, or if you're more interested in the literary piece the author has written. I've been watching one book review on youtube and the book (2023 urban fantasy) is written by an author who works under a pseudonym, and it seems like nobody knows much about the author (not even the real name) and for some it's important to know at least something and others in the comments of the video were like: "I liked the book the author had written so what's the deal?" I can also say that if i am reading a classic literary piece, it's important for me to know the historical context and that includes the biography of the author (usually the biography is something that helps me to understand the book more). But to be honest, if i am reading contemporary fiction i usually don't really care about the author... maybe it depends on what kind of genre the book is. What do you think?